Friday, July 20, 2012

The good, the bad and the possibly ugly

The good

The bailout for Spain’s banks was approved by the German parliament. They even agreed that the surplus from the 100bn euro package could be used to buy bonds.

The bad

Spain had to pay 6.459% to sell its five year bonds and over 7% for its 10 year bonds. France only had to offer less than 1% for similar bonds.

The ugly

Protesters took to the streets of 80 Spanish cities on Thursday night in protest against the governments' 65bn euro austerity package. More than 100,000 people were estimated to have joined in demonstrations called by trades unions, with about 50,000 gathering in Madrid. Police fired rubber bullets to disperse the protesters in Madrid.

Angry civil servants had blocked traffic in several main Madrid avenues earlier in the day, with protesters puncturing the tyres of dozens of riot police vans, amid growing upset at austerity, recession and 24% unemployment.

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